Ways to Make Google Chrome Run Faster in Windows

In many forums, I’ve seen people complain about how Google Chrome is starting to really stink after a while of using the program. They report that the program works kind of quickly at first, but starts acting sluggishly after heavy usage. Considering that Google Chrome is the first browser ever to open a new tab in a dedicated process, it’s easy to recognize why the browser would chew the living daylight out of any low-end computer. Even some high-end computers might experience performance declines with Google Chrome. So what are we to do? Here are some solutions:

1. Delete All the Junk That Accumulates

Your browser might start groaning when it has to fetch things from the cache constantly. Clearing your cache will take care of a lot of issues. While this might not make a significant impact, it helps. Click the little wrench icon in the top right-hand corner of Google Chrome and select “Settings.” Once in the “Settings” tab, click “Show advanced settings.” Right below where you clicked, you should now see a “Privacy” section with a “Clear browsing data” button. Click that button and make sure “Cache” is selected. Deselect anything you feel shouldn’t get deleted.

Once you click “Clear browsing data,” you should experience a slight uptick in performance, albeit with a slower page-loading time. This is a sacrifice that might be necessary for some. Don’t do this if your computer is high-end.

2. Start Fresh

Lots of people choose to start Google Chrome with the same tabs it had open in previous sessions. If your browser is already slowing down and eating up all your RAM on a previous session, what make you think that restart the browser with the same memory hogging session will solve the problem?

That’s why you need to start Chrome with a clean slate. Check your task manager when you open Chrome with all of the previous session’s tabs. It can easily take up to 3GB of RAM. Does your computer have 3 unused GB of RAM just lying around?

For a nice preview of a ‘conservative’ amount of memory usage by Chrome, check this out:

That’s with 10 tabs open, and after like 14 hours of non-stop use. I can’t leave this browser open for more than a week on my computer before I have to close it, which brings me to my next point.

3. Close Your Tabs

If you’re not using a tab, close it. It’s taking up precious real-estate that you’re not using at this moment. That can have a negative impact on your computer. If your Chrome tabs look like this, you know you need to close them:

If you use Chrome for work, it’s understandable to have even up to 25 tabs open. But if you’re not using them, close them. Every time you close a tab, you free up some memory on your computer that could otherwise be used by the other ‘active’ tabs that need to constantly load new pages on a site.

4. Remove Unused Extensions

Just because it’s not a toolbar doesn’t mean it’s not hogging up resources. Extensions in any browser can eat up enormous amounts of memory, particularly for those that are not coded properly. The best way to do this is to first remove all the extensions, then re-enable one by one those extensions that you really need. If possible, keep the number down to five. This can help reduce the load the browser has on your computer.

5. Install FastestChrome

Remember how I was rambling on about keeping your extensions to a minimum? Well, there’s one extension you must have to help you have a better experience with Chrome. It’s called FastestChrome.

FastestChrome comes with features like endless pages loading, open searches in a new tab with middle mouse click and automatically turns text URLs into links. It doesn’t reduce the memory your Chrome browser takes up, but it make your usage experience much faster and better.

6. Get Chrome to Show a Blank Page Upon New Tab

If you’re on a low-end PC, you can further reduce its memory footprint by using the “Empty New Tab Page” extension to show a blank page on new tab. You will miss out the links to your frequently accessed site on the “New Tab” page, but seriously, I don’t find them useful in the first place.

7. Do a Little Magic

Let’s pull up our sleeves, because we’re about to perform a little magic trick. You see, Google Chrome has a hidden feature specially reserved for geeks. I’m about to show you a very nifty trick that works for computers of all sizes. Let’s add a “Purge Memory” button to the browser, shall we?

Go to the shortcut you normally use to open Chrome. Right-click on it and click “Properties.” Under the “Shortcut” tab, you’ll see a textbox for “Target.” Let’s add something at the end:

--purge-memory-button

That’s all you have to do! Now, after you click “OK,” start up Google Chrome and press “Shift+Esc.” You’ll see the magic little button right here:

Every time you press that button, Chrome “magically” gets rid of some of its RAM usage.

Did It Help?

Do let us know if these advices help? If you have your own tricks to make your Chrome run faster, do share it with us too.

Yes, there has to be a space there. I just realized, Brandon, that what you pasted didn’t have that space. Please come back and tell us whether you succeeded or not. I’d like to help you more if you continue having problems.

For those using Linux, all seven tips are doable on both Chrome and Chromium. I suspect the same goes for Mac users.

On many Linux desktops, you implement step #7 by adding the --purge-memory-button snippet to the chrome.desktop or chromium.desktop file. Simply find the appropriate *.desktop file you use to open Chrome/Chromium in your text editor of choice and add --purge-memory-button to the Exec= line. My systemwide chromium.desktop file (/usr/share/applications/chromium.desktop) now has this Exec= line:

Why is “get >” included in the target? Or is that something you added?

My answer to the previous post about this was that Chrome is usually not found in the Program Files directory. That’s odd. I personally use this on my Chrome browser all the time. Let me check what I have in target…

miguel:chrome loads my game :tanki online, but when thats done then you pick a battlefield, then click play, it has to load the battlefield now, but just keeps going until sever closes the connection,, it use to load wiyhin a minute.. any tips ???

if you have Google Chrome pinned to your task bar (like I did) Right Click on the icon which opens a menu, then right click on Google Chrome in the menu and choose properties. Now add the –purge-memory-button to the end of the target field leaving a space after .exe. This worked for me.

Hi! Thank You very much for your tips! The purge button is successfully installed as is the blank page ext which saves my Speed Dial home-page opening up in every tab. And I’ve too installed the Faster Chrome ext.

One thing I do want to ask: There is a way to access Chromes functions where you can delete older versions of updates like Flash and others; I just can’t seem to find the URL. I know it has ‘Chrome//’ or to that effect in the URL. If you have any clue what I am talking about!! please let me know.